Please note: This guide does not provide legal advice. It is intended to give guidance about acceptable use of copyright protected materials.
Most images found in print material or on the Internet are copyright protected.
In some cases, permission to use images may be available under a license or subscription, or under an exception in the Copyright Act. Where no license, subscription or other agreement authorizes use, and when no exception applies, permission from the copyright owner is required.
"Images" includes paintings, prints, photographs, diagrams, drawings, maps, charts and plans.
Exceptions in the Copyright Act allow you to use images for educational purposes in a couple of different ways:
Exception for Education
Under Section 29.4(1)(b) of the Copyright Act you are permitted to project an image for the purposes of education or training on the premises of an educational institution. So for example, you can show an image in the classroom.
Exception for "Fair Dealing"
The "Fair Dealing" exception allows for the use of copyright materials for educational purposes under the following conditions:
Copying is more likely to be fair if it is done for a limited audience. For example, posting material on a secure system with password protection is more likely to be fair than uploading material to the open Internet
Exception for Using Material from the Internet
The Copyright Modernization Act, Section 30.04, allows educational institutions, for educational purposes, to reproduce, save, download and share publicly available materials that are on the Internet, under certain conditions. You can reproduce an entire image from the Internet, as long as there is no clearly visible notice prohibiting copying and as long as you are not breaking a TPM (Technological Protection Measure).
Alternatives to using copyright protected images whose use falls under one of the above exceptions include::
Good practices in using images:
Asking Permission
You always have the option of requesting permission from the copyright holder to use an image This may not always be easy or quick, but is an option if you are unsure, or if the terms of use so require.
Remember that just because you have the right to copy and share something doesn't mean you share it without credit or copyright information. For example, book chapters should include the title page and copyright page.
Permitted uses of images found in published works or from the Internet include:
Sometimes Yes, sometimes No.
To use images retrieved through Google Images you must go to the original site so you can see if there is any notice prohibiting use.
You can also use the feature in Google Image Search that limits the search to only those images that can be freely used. To look for Creative Commons licensed photographs you can filter from the “Search Tools” menu on the search results page, choose 'Usage rights' , and select one of the 'filtered for.......'. choices from the drop down menu.
Publishing or distributing images in any manner for commercial uses, without obtaining permission, is generally not permitted.
Publishing or distributing images in any manner, for uses that are made widely available, without obtaining permission, is generally not permitted. Extreme caution must be used when posting to a public website.
Altering the work in any way, unless the creator has waived their moral rights, is not permitted
It is permissible to use portions of material from a website (including images) in the classroom or posted to a course managment system:
Note: Permission to use images is often located in a website's fine print, such as the 'Terms of Use' or 'Legal Notices'. Check the terms for restrictions or limitations.
Images from a published work: when including multiple graphs and images from a published work, the total amount must not exceed 10% of the work to qualify as a 'short excerpt' under fair dealing, A helpful rule of thumb is to count each image as one page. So 5 images = 5 pages and if the work is 100 pages this would likely qualify as fair dealing.
Images from a website: since the 10% rule is difficult to apply for materials on a website you will need to determine if the material qualifies as a short excerpt. For example, a single image as long as the website contains other images would likely qualify.
Wikimedia Commons is a large collection of freely usable media files, including sounds, images and videos. Each item will list it's copyright and reuse information.
CC Content Directories are lists of organizations and projects that use Creative Commons licenses for their content. Includes: sound, video, image and other media types.
The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Includes millions of media files from the categories: video, audio, TV, image and concerts.
CC Search is a tool that allows openly licensed and public domain works to be discovered and used by everyone.
Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images, videos and music. All contents are released under the Pixabay License, which makes them safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist - even for commercial purposes.
Pexels is a free stock photo and video website and app that helps designers, bloggers, and everyone who is looking for visuals to find great photos and videos that can be downloaded and used for free.
Unsplash grants you an irrevocable, nonexclusive, worldwide copyright license to download, copy, modify, distribute, perform, and use photos from Unsplash for free, including for commercial purposes, without permission from or attributing the photographer or Unsplash.
Content from this guide adapted from KPU Copyright Guide under creative commons license.
Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0.